The Never Ending Tails
Whispers in the Wind

Since thedawn of mankind, humans always tried to figure out the meaning of their world.They developed science for the sole purpose of continuing the quest ofknowledge, and religions in order to reassure themselves. This strange mixtureof changing and unchanging believes made them reach certain answers; what theyfailed to notice is that their world was older than they imagined. With eachthing they learned, they discovered a million other still far from their reach.

Somebelieved that before the universe, only void and silence prevailed; then atsome point for some unknown reason, light started to appear in that chaosshining through the void. The first Lights to appear were thought by many to bethe stars. This unlikely mix gave birth to so many things that it is impossibleto grasp them all.

Time brokethrough the silence under the shape of the origin’s music; a melody that neverstops and brings motion to everything.

Chaos wasalso believed to be one of the first elements of the universe: the element ofuncertainty. In this mass of things that humans failed to recognize was theirown ability to shape the chaos.

Withoutknowing it, they were able to manipulate another element of the universe:Order. This order was realized through the control that humans had over thechaos of the universe and was far greater than the mere control that theybelieved to have through their actions.

Throughthe element of order, the world changed several times; it existed under theguidance of the time watch, a whole earth with its own history, slightly closeto this new one. But then chaos took back it rights and came the time of theworld modern world. This world knew many human perturbations as well; it knewmagnificent moments such as the global empathy of 1969, but also moments ofjustice like the rise of the order of the Moon. But justice run its courseleaving place to a serious turn in the very nature of humanity. The balance wasbrought back again under the eclipse around 2215, and the world seemed to befinally at peace, but was it really?

Theknowledge of Order end up reaching humans, but those who knew were hidden inthe shadows for centuries; it is only during 2229 that one of them finally tookaction. He was known as Master Sadar Shims; his origins or past whereaboutswere unknown to most.

The rarepeople who had the chance to meet him described him as a quite young man forhis reputation; they say that he always wore a long black trench coat, and agreen fedora. Under his hat they saw short wicks of white hair which wouldnormally indicate an advance age; however, in the case of Master Sadar, theyall swore that he had the face of a thirty years old at maximum. They also saidthat he had child’s eyes of a strange golden color, but that his words were thewords of a man who lived forever. Some said that he was an immortal just likeSimon Dice or Sélas Prime, but no one could really tell for sure.

PanchiSvazada was a brilliant young girl from India; she has always been consideredvery beautiful by her peers, but failed to give any kind of attention toherself; it was this natural nonchalance she was irradiating that gave her allher charm.

She hadlong wood brown hair that was getting clearer as it goes. It had the potentialto be perfectly straight if she just cared to straighten it, but she never did;the result was a lightly curly mane that was particular to her and her alone.

She had apeaceful face, although sparks could be seen in her ebony eyes. Panchi wasneither too long nor too short; her skin was lightly tanned giving theimpression to shine like waxed bronze.

Panchi hasalways been very keen of science; she was very brilliant in biology and pursuedher higher studies in California in the High Institute of Bio-Engineering. By2229, she was a highly respected Bio-engineer; she wrote a big number ofinfluential articles and gave lectures in many universities while she was onlytwenty six.

Panchi metthe mysterious Master Sadar during a conference about the potential dangers ofmass bovine living tissues for the consumers, she was about to leave when shenoticed that the only other person in the conference room left was a shady manwith his face hidden under a fedora. Without think twice, she walked towardshim.

“Sir! Theconference is over!”

The shadyman stayed still. Panchi didn’t know what to do with him; after a second, shereached for his hat. She was eager to see how deep this man was sleeping. Asshe touched the fedora, the hand of the stranger grabbed hers. She lightlyscreamed, surprised.

“Youshouldn’t touch others’ belongings when you think they are in a deep sleepyoung girl.”

The voiceof the stranger was incredibly calm; like he had seen the whole ordeal comingbefore it even happened.

“Well Itold you that the conference was over. It’s your fault if you weren’tlistening.”

The manlet go of her hand. As Panchi stepped back, he got on his feet. For the firsttime in her life, she felt small and helpless.

“I waslistening the whole time; brilliant presentation by the way.” The man saidtaking off his fedora and finally showing his face.

AllPanchi’s anxiety disappeared as she crossed his golden gaze.

“Who areyou?” She asked while still mesmerized by this strange coloration in thestranger’s irises.

‘Is heeven human?’ She thought while thinking that such eye colors doesn’t exist. Itwas clear it wasn’t color contacts, she could recognize those any time. ‘Whothe hell is this man?’

“My nameis Sadar Shims; I am afraid there isn’t much I can tell about myself; I give myprivacy the highest importance. I believe that a scientist such as you wouldunderstand my point” The man said.

“A privateinvestor!” Panchi said sure of her guess.

“Quiteclose, but not exactly that.” The man said with a warm laugh.

Panchifrowned, she felt awkward. Why was she even feeling awkward? That rarelyhappened to her before.

“I am asort of researcher as well” The man said. “Not exactly a Bio-engineer, but myspecialty extends to that field as well. After all, Chaos and Order alterpretty much everything.”

Panchistarted thinking fast; ‘was this man for real? Chaos and Order! who studythat?’

“What kindof Chaos and Order are you talking about? Scientific, Economic, Social?”

“Multiversal”He simply answered.

“What? Likein quantum physics?” She asked again.

“That andeven more!” The man responded.

SadarShims stopped looking at the young scientist and looked at a golden watch hetook from his trench coat.

“I amafraid I must leave for now, but!”

He reachedfor another of his pockets and took a small memory drive.

“You’llreplace out about my field of study if you check those documents. If you areinterested in learning more about it, I’m sure you will.”

He reachedagain this time for his upper pocket and presented Panchi with a sort ofprofessional card.

“Once youfeel ready, just use the card; I’m sure you will know how by then.”

Panchilost herself in her thinking, by the time she got out of it, she found the cardand the drive in her hand, and no sign of the mysterious Sadar Shims.

Two weeksafter this bizarre encounter, Panchi resigned from all her teaching contracts,and stopped all her Bio-Engineering research to get enrolled in a new PhD inHistory of religion at UCLA, California.

A sermonwas hold at the High Church of the Eclipse in Rome. The church was like amodern Babel tower, all made in steel and violet glass. It was so Big in factthat the mighty Museum that the Vatican has become seemed quite small incomparison.

At thecenter of the church, in the highest level, all the important actors of theworld who were members of the church-and they were almost a thousand-weregathered in a large disk formation. The glass on top of them was open inthe middle and replicating the form of a solar eclipse. In the middle of thedisk, on a slightly elevated platform, the priestess of the day was speakingthe words of the eclipse.

“Long longago, when the world was still young, the sun rose upon us, bringing us heat andlight. The sun guided our lives and soon became our god. Men Worshiped the Sunand declared it as theirs; they started the age of Foxes! They burned womendown and were cruel to them for eons; but women never really bent the knee,they started the secret faith of the moon and under the shadows of the night,they plotted against the foxes! After a long and tiring struggle, the foxesended up nearly disappearing as the moon was rising, and with it, the mightysilver falcon. A new age started where the foxes paid for their misdeeds of thepast. The world finally reached a balance with the actions of the immortals,and peace finally reigned among us with the eclipse!…”

The sermonwent on like that for ours, and no one showed any sign of tiredness, everybodywas irradiating peace, tranquility, and especially happiness; true happinessthat can’t be faked.

Among thethousand people gathering, A young man was standing at the very limit of thedisk, avoiding contact with anybody around him. His name was Mark Ensis. He wasthe second heir to Marcellus Ensis, a very well-known and respectedAstrophysicist. Mark was 24, and a full time member of the church of theeclipse, even though he rarely talked to anyone.

As thechurch wasn’t really stipulating any kind of religious outfit for the sermons,Mark was wearing a Black jean, A light blue T-shirt with a white sword shape inthe middle, and a black leather jacket. His half long black hair was partiallyhidden under a dark mustard baseball cap. The cap was partially shading hisface, but under the shadow he had vivid brown eyes that seemed to see througheverything around. His face was a bit long, but sharp and he had what seemed tobe a week old mustache and beard.

Markwasn’t feeling well that day, he had been out the day before with some friends,and ended up drinking until down; ‘not really the smartest thing I’ve everdone’ He thought, but if it was to be repeated, he would do it gladly again. Heexcused himself near the end of the sermon, and quietly broke the disk withoutany one really noticing. A minute later he was throwing up in the church’sbathroom.

“I’llrepeat yesterday night, but totally with less booze,” he said to himself outloud between two barfs.

“Wisewords my friend,” said a voice from the outside his stall.

Mark tooksome toilet paper and wiped all remaining traces of barf from his face; it tookhim a little while due to the dry residue on his beard. Then throwing thepieces in the toilet, he flushed and waited for a moment. When he was sure thatthe stranger was gone; he finally opened the door of his stall. He passed hishead out first to check if the stranger was still there, but he saw no one. Hetook the time to refresh and took a few mints before leaving the bathroom. Ashe was walking out, a voice rose behind him.

“Feelingbetter?”

It was thesame voice Mark heard just a moment before. He instantly turned facing itsource; it was coming from Sadar Shims. The mysterious Sadar was wearing histrademark black trench coat and green fedora.

“Mr Ensis,Mark Ensis I presume. My name is Sadar Shims.”

Markstayed silent as his eyes were quickly scanning the stranger. After a littlewhile, he finally spoke.

“Are youhere for the sermon Mr Shims?”

“Notreally, I know enough about the church of the eclipse, a sermon would only be arepetition of an already acquired knowledge.” The stranger responded calmly.

“So youare not a believer?” Mark Asked.

Thestranger started laughing and laughing.

“Somethingfunny about our faith?” Mark asked innocently.

“Not atall; I am truly sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. I do believe in fact, but Ido believe much much more than the teaching of the church of the eclipse alone,”The stranger apologetically responded as he stopped his laughter.

“Are yousome sort of theologian?” Mark asked, suddenly invaded by a wave of curiosity.

“Somemight say so, but my area of expertise is much larger!” The stranger answered.

Sadar tooka little memory drive and a card similar to the ones he gave to Panchi, andoffered them to Mark.

“Youshould look up the information on the drive, I am sure you will replace them veryenlightening! Once you do, you will want to recontact me, you’ll need to usethe card for that effect. You will know how by then. Well, I don’t want to seemrude or anything, but I must be on my leave.” Sadar said.

Withoutadding a word, he quickly vanished before Mark could even notice.

Two weekslater, Mark Ensis stopped going to the church of the eclipse, and started whathis father tried to convince him to do for ages: getting enrolled at the HighInstitute of Quantum Physics in Geneva.

PanchiSvazada and Mark Ensis were the only disciples Master Sadar Shims ever took;their contact with the master changed their lives in ways they never imagined…